The Panchgani Writers' Retreat in India
The Panchgani Writers’ Retreat (PWR) is an annual event that writers look forward to. This is hosted in the natural scenic splendor of Panchgani and is brought to you every year by a bunch of dreamers, writers and creators!
You will enjoy a week of wholesome and healthy living in an olde world rustic setting, including yoga, meditation, hiking trails, sightseeing and vegetarian home-cooked meals.
This year, in addition to our fiction, nonfiction and poetry workshops, we are excited to add a screenwriting workshop and a self–publishing workshop by experts in their field. Come elevate your craft!
Our Poetry workshop would cover appreciating and writing through three forms: free verse, haiku and haibun.
The flash fiction workshop would show us how to write more in fewer words.
The art of brevity would underlie both these workshops as much as lyrical writing with imagery.
We would also discuss the writing and publishing of these forms and Life as an Artist.
In our Non-Fiction/Essay workshops: Writing The Lyrical Essay and The Art Of Creative Non-Fiction, we will cover how any piece of writing is inherently creative and we will learn about the approaches and techniques utilized by writers. We explore poetic elements and creative nonfiction in nuanced, unique and experimental ways.
Our screenwriting workshop is an exciting opportunity to work with a professional screenwriter to discover how story telling works on screen. It will allow you to explore the fundamentals of writing for film and streaming platforms and get you acquainted with the tools you need on your screenwriting journey.
In our self–publishing workshop we discuss the advantages of taking full control of the publishing process yourself versus pursuing a traditional publishing deal or paying aa vanity/hybrid publisher. You are walked through the process of writing, editing, self-publishing and marketing your book.
If you are wondering how one gets here, please click here.
The Person behind the Retreat
SHABNAM SAMUEL, Founder & Organizer
SHABNAM SAMUEL is a writer, business coach, social media trainer and the founder of the Panchgani Writers’ Retreat, an international writing retreat based out of Panchgani, India. The retreat incorporates mindful living along with creativity and wellness following Ayurveda principles, with yoga, meditation and writing workshops.
As a writer, Shabnam has been writing ever since she can remember. Her essays have been published online in Brain, Child Magazine and Your Tango. Shabnam’s first book, a Memoir, called A Fractured Life, was published in the US on September 19th, 2018. She is now working on her second book, which is a historical fiction.
Shabnam also hosts a local TV show called Dew Drops and Words that broadcasts to 6.1 million viewers on the ABC News –WJLA /LA TV networks in the Washington DC area. You can find her on YouTube under Dew Drops and Words.
She mentors with the Empowered Women International, in Alexandria, VA, that helps train low-income, immigrant and refugee women on how to be successful entrepreneurs, as a business coach.
Shabnam has called the suburbs of Washington DC her home for the last 30 years.